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It's not confusing once you know where it came from. The NT kernel has a concept called “environment subsystems”. Win32 was, until WSL1, the only one used (a lo
by unsafecast 4y ago
It's not confusing once you know where it came from. The NT kernel has a concept called “environment subsystems”. Win32 was, until WSL1, the only one used (a long time ago there was SFU, the grandfather of WSL). So WSL is a Windows subsystem made for Linux. Hence the name.
Note that WSL2 isn't an NT subsystem, they're just using an actual kernel now. The name stuck though.
- tzs 4y agoThe original NT subsystems were for OS/2, POSIX, and Win32 and were called simply the "OS/2 Subsystem", "POSIX Subsystem", and "Win32 Subsystem". If they had stuck with the sensible NT naming convention, WLS would have simply been the Linux Subsystem.
- unsafecast 4y agoFair point. I was just arguing that it technically makes sense. The naming thing kind of started with SFU though.